USDA announces Emergency Commodity Assistance Program

This afternoon, USDA officially announced the Emergency Commodity Assistance Program (ECAP), a new program that includes direct payments of up to $10 billion in total economic assistance for eligible producers of eligible commodities for the 2024 crop year. The program will be administered by the Farm Service Agency (FSA). The program and funding were authorized by Congress in the American Relief Act, 2025, the year-end government funding package last December. The program will begin accepting applications tomorrow, March 19.

Farmers Union members fought very hard to ensure these funds were included in the year-end package, which was far from certain. NFU issued public statements in December 2024 here, here, and here (and upon passage of the deal, here) regarding the need for this aid – while continuing the stress the need for a new 5-year farm bill. During the year-end debates over funding, NFU also fought for agricultural disaster assistance, and the nearly $21 billion authorized for that purpose is expected to be distributed by USDA at a future date, but there is a not a clear timeline yet for this.

You can preview program details in the Notice of Funds Availability (NOFA) here. We have summarized some of the program information below.

Program details:

• Assistance will be provided based on a flat payment rate for eligible commodities, multiplied by eligible acres (not production).
• In cases of prevented plant acres, 50 percent of those acres will receive payment.
• Formula for payments (more below) is largely specified in statute. The program pays for economic loss, relative to cost of production; input costs were determined by USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) and the cost of return is based on the WASDE.
• Payments will be factored by 85 percent to ensure all eligible producers can receive payments; after the application deadline closes, if funds remain, USDA may issue a second tranche of funding
• Payment limitations: as specified in statute for the program are as follows:

• • For producers with less than 75 percent of income derived from farming, $125,000 limit
  • For producers with more than 75 percent of income derived from farming, $250,000 limit

• FSA will generate pre-filled ECAP applications for producers based on their acreage of eligible commodities on FSA-578. Beginning in late March, FSA will mail those pre-filled applications to producers who had reported their 2024 crop year acreage of eligible commodities by March 10, 2025. Producers with a level 2 eAuthentication account or a login.gov account may complete their application electronically by visiting https://www.fsa.usda.gov/ecap.
• Farmers do not need to wait to receive their pre-filled application to apply; farmers are welcome to apply directly through their local FSA office or online (if eligible) before receiving their pre-filled application.
• The program application will open tomorrow, March 19, and close on August 15.

Formula used to calculate payments:

USDA will make a simplified calculator available to producers on the USDA website. Here is how USDA is describing its formula in the NOFA:

FSA has calculated a payment rate for each eligible commodity that is equal to the greater of:

• 26 percent of the economic loss (that is, the difference between the expected cost of production per acre and the expected gross return per acre) for an eligible commodity (referred to as the “economic loss payment rate” in this document); or
• 8 percent of the eligible commodity’s PLC reference price, multiplied by the eligible commodity’s PLC national average payment yield (referred to as the “minimum payment rate” in this document).